The pairing of these two symphonies isn't just a clever gimmick. Both works, as Paul Schiavo points out in his program notes, are works "of strife or pathos progressing to exultant finales. That progression makes for a musical drama that is both elemental and thrilling." The fact that, in Shostakovich's case, the finale might actually have a double meaning just makes things that much more interesting.

But first, the Beethoven. Given the immense popularity this work has enjoyed over the centuries, it's easy to forget that its premiere on December 22, 1808 in Vienna was not a great success. The Fifth was part of a mammoth five hour program that included the Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony, the Fourth Piano Concerto, a couple of movements from the "Mass in C," a concert aria ("Ah, perfido"), and the Op. 80 "Choral Fantasy." Beethoven conducted and played the solo piano part in the Concerto and the Fantasy.

There was only one rehearsal before the concert, the musicians weren't up to Beethoven's demands, the auditorium was cold, and by the time the Fifth was played after intermission the audience was exhausted. Things went so badly that at one point the Choral Fantasy had to be stopped completely after a performance error. Not auspicious.

In fact, it wasn't until E.T.A. Hoffmann published an enthusiastic review of the newly published score in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung a year and a half later that everyone began to sit up and take notice of the Fifth. "Radiant beams shoot through this region's deep night," wrote Hoffmann of the music's dramatic effect, "and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy everything within us except the pain of endless longing—a longing in which every pleasure that rose up in jubilant tones sinks and succumbs, and only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with full-voiced harmonies of all the passions, we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits."

More and better-rehearsed performances followed. By the time Hector Berlioz wrote his "Critical Study of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies" he could state that the Fifth was "without doubt the most famous of the symphonies" and "the first in which Beethoven gave wings to his vast imagination without being guided by or relying on any external source of inspiration." Today the Fifth is famous not just on earth but in outer space as well; a recording of the first movement by the Philadelphia Orchestra was part of the Voyager Golden Record, included on the first two Voyager space probes launched in 1977 and now speeding through deep space.

Shostakovich's Fifth had a more successful premiere. Indeed, it's possible that the Fifth saved not only the composer's career but his life as well.

Shostakovich in 1935

When Shostakovich began work on the Fifth, he was in hot water with Stalin's regime. Stalin's rise to power marked a chilling of the intellectual atmosphere in the Soviet Union. All art was expected to serve the political interests of the state and to be as accessible as possible. The exuberant experimentation that followed the overthrow of the Czarist regime was now strictly forbidden. Composers were expected to write upbeat, patriotic stuff—or else.

Unfortunately for Shostakovich, his most popular work at the time was his surreal and lurid 1934 opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". It had been playing to packed houses in Leningrad, but when Stalin decided to attend a performance in Moscow in January of 1936 he was not amused. The dissonant score baffled him and he was reportedly put off by the graphic violence on stage—ironic, considering the total body count of the Stalinist Terror. Stalin left at intermission and the next day an anonymous article on the front page of Pravda (approved and possibly even written by Stalin) condemned the music and libretto in the harshest terms. "Muddle Instead of Music," ran the headline. Not good.

"The opera disappeared overnight," notes Michael Tilson Thomas in an episode of the PBS series "Keeping Score" on the Fifth, "and every publication and political organization in the country heaped personal attacks on its composer." The 29-year-old composer started sleeping in the stairwell of his apartment building, hoping that doing so might spare his family when the secret police came to drag him off to a Gulag or worse. They never did, but he lost many friends and even family members to that outbreak of official violence now known as the Stalinist Terror.

After writing and then withdrawing a Fourth Symphony, Shostakovich finally began work on the Fifth in April of 1937. He completed it in less than three months. He set out to produce a work that would appear, at least on the surface, to meet the demands of heroic socialist realism. He even went so far as to accompany the first performance with an article in the Moscow newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva titled "A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism"—lest there be any doubt that he had Learned His Lesson.

And it worked. Official response to the November 21 1937 premiere by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Evgeny Mravisnky (who would become a great champion of the work) was enthusiastic. Alexei Tolstoy set the official tone in a review in which he praised the "enormous optimistic lift" of the final movement. Shostakovich was officially rehabilitated.

But is the Fifth really the model of Soviet patriotism the commissars thought it was? In his liner notes for the St. Louis Symphony's 1986 recording of the Fifth (with Leonard Slatkin conducting) Richard Freed writes that the work "was born of [Shostakovich's] determination to be a survivor, and to keep his protests private—except insofar as the perceptive listener could hear them in his music." And, indeed, it appears that the audience at the symphony's premiere heard a deeper and less superficial message. "Many in the premiere audience were seen to weep openly," writes Mr. Freed. "[T]hey wept, Shostakovich himself felt, because 'they understood; they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about.'"

Listening to it now, it's impossible not to hear despair and defiance instead of patriotic uplift, especially in the ominous mock fanfare of the opening and the succession of aggressive march tunes in the finale. The second movement Allegretto is a Mahlerian parody of a waltz, complete with squawking clarinet and, unexpectedly, a graceful little violin. And the third movement Largo clearly feels like lament for all the friends and family the composer lost to the Terror, memorialized with chorale-like string writing that calls to mind the liturgy of the banned Russian Orthodox Church.

This disconnect between what Soviet officials heard and what the composer intended is most evident, I think, in the final movement. The Soviet bureaucrats heard triumph, affirmation, and apotheosis. As well they might have, since Shostakovich, at the time of the symphony's premiere, described that finale as "the optimistic resolution of the tragically tense moments of the first movement." Even in the West, symphony program notes and liner notes for recordings described the finale with phrases like "the utmost in orchestral power and brilliance" (David Hall for the 1958 Stokowski recording) and "lusty and boisterous" (an unnamed annotator for the 1962 Karel Ancerl LP).

That all changed with the publication, in 1979, of "Testimony" by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. Allegedly based on memoirs of Shostakovich, the book states unequivocally that the final movement of the Fifth was intended as a parody of militaristic triumphalism: "The rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as in Boris Godunov. It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, 'Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,' and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, 'Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.'" Richard Freed writes, as well, that "Shostakovich is on record as having stated that he intended no apotheosis in this finale."

Some recent performances and recordings, as a result, tend to emphasize the caustic and satirical aspects of the Fifth (Mr. Slatkin's is a good example). What approach will Mr. van Zweden take? We won't know until Friday night.

The essentials: Jaap van Zweden conducts the St. Louis Symphony in the "Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67" by Beethoven and the "Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47" by Shostakovich. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM, January 31 - February 2, at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org. The Saturday concert will also be broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio at 90.7 FM, HD 1, and on line at stlouispublicradio.org.

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents The Other Place through February 9. "Brilliant research scientist Juliana Smithton is on the cutting edge in her field, but her life is beginning to come unhinged. While promoting her groundbreaking drug for the treatment of neurological disorders, she experiences a disturbing medical episode of her own and begins to lose her own tenuous grasp on reality. The past blurs with the present and fragmented memories collide in this riveting drama where nothing is as it seems." Performances take place in the studio theatre at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

My take: Once again, the Rep studio theatre has come up with a winner. Sharr White's play is, as I write in my review for 88.1 KDHX, "a compelling drama about what happens when reality, perception, and memory become disconnected from each other." The script is a strong one, with dialog poetic enough to be interesting while still natural enough to sound real. And Mr. White's characters have depth and the story makes sense. Acting and technical aspects of the show are flawless.

Held Over:

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Michael Hollinger's Opus through February 2. "With only four days to rehearse for their most important performance ever, a world-class string quartet takes a chance by hiring a gifted but inexperienced young woman. Onstage the Lazara Quartet is pitch perfect but behind the scenes they're coming unstrung as the four artists battle the sweat, tears and pain that go into making extraordinary music seem effortless. This fascinating play is a passionate look at the delicate and complex relationships between artists' lives and their art." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

My take: I'm on the board of West End Players Guild, the group that did the St. Louis premiere of this play last April. I was a big backer of Opus in the WEPG play reading committee and remain a fan of this funny, literate, dramatic, and informed look at the often less than beautiful reality behind the performance of so much beautiful music. It's easy to be transported by (say) a late Beethoven quartet and lose sight of the fact that the performers are doing their jobs as well as creating art. Opus explores what happens when the worlds of commerce and art collide. "Here is a lovely play," writes Andrea Braun in her review for 88.1 KDHX, "well performed by a talented cast and it deserves an audience".

St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its seventh season, themed Sins of the Father, with Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan through February 2. Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information, call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

My take: Fans of Arthur Miller have a rare chance to see two of his less-famous plays on stage this weekend: Kirkwood Theatre Guild's All My Sons and the Actors' Studio production of The Ride Down Mount Morgan. "The tightly wound, well acted production," writes Tina Farmer in her review for 88.1 KDHX, "envelopes the audience in the small theater, delivering a memorable version of a beautifully crafted drama. ..Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan is a wise choice for theatergoers interested in seeing an excellent performance of a seldom seen play by an icon of American theater. "

Monday, January 27, 2014

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.]

For information on events beyond this week, check out the searchable database at the Regional Arts Commission's ArtsZipper site.

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The Lemp Mansion Comedy-Mystery Dinner Theater presents its Bullets in the Bathtub through April 27. The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place. For more information: lempmansion.com

Hard Road Theatre Productions presents the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM through February 1. Performances will be held at Highland High School in Highland, IL. For more information: www.hardroad.org.

The Black Rep and the Missouri History Museum present Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf January 30 - February 9. Performances take place in the Lee Auditorium at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. For more information: mohistory.org.

Upstream Theater presents Forget Me Not by Tom Holloway January 31 - February 16. "Forget Me Not is the story of a man who was told his mother had died and was shipped to Australia when he was three years old. And of his mother, who never stopped celebrating her little boy's birthday. And of his learning about himself-and about what it means to love." Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, including show times: upstreamtheater.org.

Clayton Community Theatre presents Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM through February 2. "Constance Ledbelly - a Shakespearean scholar working on a theory that both Romeo and Juliet and Othello were intended to be comedies - finds herself transported into the worlds of the plays, where not only the endings, but the very characters themselves are nothing like she could possibly have imagined." Performances take place at the Washington University South Campus Theatre. For more information, call 314-721-9228 or visit placeseveryone.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Michael Hollinger's Opus through February 2. "With only four days to rehearse for their most important performance ever, a world-class string quartet takes a chance by hiring a gifted but inexperienced young woman. Onstage the Lazara Quartet is pitch perfect but behind the scenes they're coming unstrung as the four artists battle the sweat, tears and pain that go into making extraordinary music seem effortless. This fascinating play is a passionate look at the delicate and complex relationships between artists' lives and their art." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents The Other Place through February 9. "Brilliant research scientist Juliana Smithton is on the cutting edge in her field, but her life is beginning to come unhinged. While promoting her groundbreaking drug for the treatment of neurological disorders, she experiences a disturbing medical episode of her own and begins to lose her own tenuous grasp on reality. The past blurs with the present and fragmented memories collide in this riveting drama where nothing is as it seems." Performances take place in the studio theatre at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its seventh season, themed Sins of the Father, with Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan through February 2. Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. "Lyman’s desires have allowed him to believe that loving—and marrying—two women is the kind of love that is totally truthful, and that he is being true to himself. When found out, his wives clarify the position: Only by deceiving everyone, has he found a way to his own false sense of truth. While lying in the hospital, recovering from bad injuries after a car crash, Lyman’s women meet. They are shocked and devastated, as are the children who once adored Lyman, and now verge on despising him. As we follow the chain of events that lead up to this day, what is revealed is a selfish man, willing to take, while others around him are willing to give and to turn a blind’s eye to suspicions." For more information, call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

Photo: John Lamb

New Jewish Theatre presents The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez January 30 - February 16. "A seriously injured Confederate soldier returns to the ruins of his once grand Richmond home at the end of the Civil War to find only two former slaves and no one else - creating an unlikely trio - a Jewish Confederate soldier and former slave owner and his two former slaves who were raised as Jews. As the three gather for a makeshift Passover Seder, they come to terms with their shared past and secrets as they ask the age-old question "Why is this night different from all other nights?"" Performances take place in the Marvin and Harlene Wool Studio Theater at the Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive in Creve Coeur. For more information: www.newjewishtheatre.org or call 314-442-3283.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.

When you think of the music for the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," the first names that probably come to mind are Harold Arlen and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg. Their songs "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "If I Only Had a Brain" have been firmly ensconced in the Great American Songbook for decades. If you're a film music fan, you might also think of composer/arranger (and Broadway veteran) Herbert Stothart, who combined Arlen's tunes with original material into a seamless, Oscar-winning score.

Names that would probably not leap to the forefront of your cranium would be Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and Zoltán Kodály. And yet the recordings of music by those 20th century masters that serve as the accompaniment for Ballet Memphis's dance version of the classic film are so well chosen that you'd think they were composed exactly for the purpose.

That canny choice of music isn't the only reason this ballet version of "The Wizard of Oz" was so entertaining, of course. Steven McMahon's eclectic and character-driven choreography, Bruce Bui's colorful costumes, Andrew Kovach's simple but effective sets, and Andrew Meyers' minimalist yet dramatic lighting all combined to make this a genuine "all ages" show. We saw it at the Saturday matinee, and the parents were clearly enjoying it as much as their Munchkin offspring.

Photo: Andrea Zucker

The scenario follows the film closely and, rather like Beijing opera, clearly assumes that the audience is familiar enough with the source material to fill in the details. When we saw the oversize, distorted shadow of Rafael Ferreras, Jr., (slyly fraudulent as the Wizard) flamboyantly gesticulating at Dorothy and her three companions, for example, it was easy to recall the oversize, distorted projection of Frank Morgan's face from the movie. Likewise, Travis Bradley's loose-limbed, acrobatic clumsiness as the Scarecrow immediately called to mind Ray Bolger's equally magical dancing in the original.

Ballet Memphis's "Wizard of Oz" is not, in short, for those who have somehow never seen the film. But then, given how popular the film has been over the decades, that's pretty small potatoes as criticism goes.

The company has assembled a wonderful cast of dancers for this tour. Julie Niekrasz (Glinda in the evening performances) was a wistful and charming Dorothy, Dylan G-Bowley an amusingly robotic as the Tin Man, and Kendall G. Britt Jr. the very essence of comic feline bravado as Lion. Crystal Brothers (Aunt Em in the evenings) was a wonderfully sinuous and gravity defying Wicked Witch while Virginia Pilgrim (Dorothy in the evenings) was cheerfully sugary as Glinda. Daniel Russell Cooke was a sympathetic Uncle Henry, and Bryn Gilbert made a strong impression in the small but vital role of the awful Miss Gulch.

Photo: Andrea Zucker

The corps de ballet (which included dancers from some of the smaller roles) filled in as poppies, snowflakes, flying monkeys (with some very evocative Fosse-esque choreography), and citizens of the Emerald City. Students from COCA's dance program portrayed the Munchkins and children of Oz. It's a nifty local tie-in and, again, a sign of the intelligence behind this production in that it saves the company the hassles of travelling with child performers.

It is, I suppose, possible that hard-core dance lovers might dismiss overtly commercial efforts like "Wizard of Oz" (although Ballet-Dance Magazine certainly seemed to like the 2007 premiere), but the fact is that very few performing arts organizations can survive these days without the occasional crowd pleaser. You can't champion newer and more innovative work (as Ballet Memphis clearly does; their motto is "reach further") without something guaranteed to pay the bills. If the size of the house this past Saturday afternoon was any indication, "The Wizard of Oz" is does that, and delivers a satisfying piece of dance theatre in the process. I'd call that a win-win.

The Ballet Memphis production of "The Wizard of Oz" played the Touhill Performing Arts Center January 24 and 25, produced by Dance St. Louis. The Dance St. Louis season continues February 28 and March 1 at the Touhill with Diavolo, a company of modern dancers athletes, gymnasts, ballet dancers, martial artists, actors, and stunt performers, the blurs the boundary between dance and circus arts. For more information: dancestlouis.org.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents the fourth in a series of Beethoven Festival concerts, as Jaap van Zweden conducts the orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 along with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Performances take place on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM, January 31 – February 2, at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. "In the final week of the Beethoven festival Jaap Van Zweden leads the orchestra in Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 5. The first four opening notes are classical music’s most popular ever played and are heard throughout pop culture today in disco, rock n’ roll and film soundtracks. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, with an equally captivating opening sequence, rounds out this powerhouse program." For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The Sheldon Concert Hall presents David Halen and members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Greatest Hits of 1764 on Wednesday, January 29, at 8 PM. The program features Mozart's Symphony No. 1, written when the composer was eight years old. "Our small chamber orchestra of Symphony musicians also performs a new first symphony by a young composer, as well as the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Christian Bach and Franz Josef Haydn." The Sheldon is at 3648 Washington in Grand Center. For more information: thesheldon.org.

Graham Woodland

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents violinist Graham Woodland, accompanied by pianist Vera Parkin, in a concert of music by Locatelli, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven on Thursday, January 30 at 5:30 PM. "Graham Woodland is currently a junior at the University of Missouri, where he is pursuing a degree in Violin Performance studying under Eva Szekely. At MU, he has served as concertmaster of the MU Philharmonic Orchestra and is heavily involved in chamber music activities. He is a regular member of the Columbia Civic Orchestra, and also frequently performs with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, in Illinois." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents the Perseid Quartet in a concert of music by Beethoven and Grieg on Friday, January 31 at 8:00 PM. "The evening begins with Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4, an early example of Beethoven's mastery of form and Classical style, with an energetic last movement inspired by Hungarian dances. For the second half, we journey north for Edward Grieg's epic String Quartet in G minor. This less familiar work is influenced by the folk music Grieg encountered in his native Norway, and the unorthodox harmonies and resonant chordal writing take their cue from Norwegian fiddle, peasant dances, and folk song. Insistent rhythmic figures reach their apex in a thrilling presto conclusion." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Denise Elif Gill

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents Denise Elif Gill in a concert of Turkish classical music for kanun (Middle Eastern trapezoidal zither) on Saturday, February 1 at 8:00 PM. "Denise Elif Gill is a kanun player who has lived a portion of her life in Istanbul, studying music with acclaimed musicians Necati Çelik, Halil Karaduman, and Celaleddin Aksoy. She is a specialist in the improvisation practices and repertoire of Turkish classical music, a genre of music developed in courts of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923) and Mevlevi Sufi institutions. Dr. Gill has performed kanun on radio and television programs and concert halls in Turkey, the United States, and for the European Union in Brussels." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Who: The St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, with viola soloist Brett Dean
What: Music by Brett Dean and Beethoven
When: Friday and Saturday, January 24 and 25
Where: Powell Symphony Hall

The symphony's "Beethoven Festival" continues this week with a powerful reading of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 55," (the "Eroica") and brilliant performances of two new works composed by viola soloist Brett Dean, one of which is inspired by Beethoven.

"Testament (Music for 12 Violas)," the concert opener, is the one inspired by Beethoven—specifically by his famous "Heiligenstadt Testament." That is, as most classical fans will recall, a letter Beethoven wrote to his brothers Carl and Johann at the town of Heiligenstadt (now part of Vienna) in which he told of his despair over his increasing deafness and his struggles with thoughts of suicide.

As David Robertson points out in his brief but highly informative opening remarks, composer Dean takes us into Beethoven's auditory world by having the twelve violists play, at first, with rosinless bows. Without rosin to give it friction, the bow glides over the strings, producing what Mr. Dean describes as "an eerie surface noise over the strings." Watching musicians sawing away at their instruments and producing this ghostly sound, then, gives us a feel for what Beethoven might have experienced as his sonic world began to fade away.

It's an interesting conceit and it lends the piece an emotional power that's accentuated by the occasional emergence from the auditory fog of snatches of the first of the "Razumovsky" Quartets—one of many major works (including the "Eroica") that emerged from the crucible of Heiligenstadt. Beethoven's despair and defiance are both audible in "Testament," which got a remarkable performance by the orchestra's violists along with guest artists Caleb Burhans of the contemporary music group Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble member Wendy Richman, and Margaret Dyer and Emily Deans of the camber ensemble A Far Cry.

Mr. Dean's own "Viola Concerto" followed, and I must confess that I found it rather less compelling. Reviewing the world premiere of the concerto by the BBC Symphony in 2005, Andrew Clements of The Guardian described it as "a substantial affair, elegantly proportioned and full of colourful musical imagery." I'd agree that it's substantial, but the substance is, to my ears, all too similar to the work of many other composers of recent vintage, who seem determined to stretch a paucity of brief musical ideas out well past their modest breaking point. There is, moreover, a sameness to that colorful imagery that made it hard to sustain interest in the proceedings.

There is, in short, a great deal of sound and fury in this work, along with a rather spectacular semi-cadenza in the second movement that gave Mr. Dean an opportunity to display his considerable skill on the instrument. For the most, though, I found it all uninvolving, if not off-putting. The final section, featuring a slightly melancholy duet for the soloist and English horn (beautifully played by Cally Banham) was, for me, the best part of this work.

If Heiligenstadt marked a "dark night of the soul" for Beethoven, he clearly emerged from it artistically stronger, with his own unique compositional voice. His first two symphonies were largely in the mold of Haydn and Mozart. But with the "Eroica" Beethoven created, as Paul Schiavo writes in his program notes, "a new musical genre, the Romantic symphony." Those first two big chords are almost like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge established notions of what a symphony should be, and they take us forever out of the Classical era.

Mr. Robertson and the orchestra gave us a thoroughly admirable "Eroica" Friday night. Always an active presence on the podium, Mr. Robertson threw himself into that dynamic, propulsive first movement in a way that produced a tremendously exciting and visceral sense of drama. The funeral march of the second movement exuded tragic grandeur, the scherzo was fleet of foot (with excellent work from the horns), and the grand musical architecture of the finale was beautifully realized. It was altogether as powerful an "Eroica" as one would wish for and brought the concert to a happy conclusion.

Next at Powell Hall, the "Beethoven Festival" concludes with the fifth symphonies of Beethoven and Shostakovich conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM, January 31 – February 2. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Friday, January 24, 2014

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its seventh season, themed Sins of the Father, with Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan through February 2. Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information, call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

My take: Fans of Arthur Miller have a rare chance to see two of his less-famous plays on stage this weekend: Kirkwood Theatre Guild's All My Sons and the Actors' Studio production of The Ride Down Mount Morgan. "The tightly wound, well acted production," writes Tina Farmer in her review for 88.1 KDHX, "envelopes the audience in the small theater, delivering a memorable version of a beautifully crafted drama. ..Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan is a wise choice for theatergoers interested in seeing an excellent performance of a seldom seen play by an icon of American theater. "

New Line Theatre Offline presents What The Hell Are We Doing Here? An Adult Cabaret on Saturday, January 25, at 8 PM. “New Line Theatre Off Line presents a quirky, decidedly adult evening of cabaret, featuring the New Generation of New Liners, Marcy Wiegert (Hair, Cry-Baby, Bukowsical, Night of the Living Dead) and Ryan Foizey (Cry-Baby, High Fidelity, Next to Normal, Bukowsical), with music direction by Justin Smolik and direction by Mike Dowdy.” Performances take place at the Kranzberg Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, call 314-534-1111.

My take: It looks like New Line's left-of-center approach to musical theatre and dedication to bringing non-mainstream shows to the local scene will be reflected in this cabaret evening, which can only be a good thing in my view.

Photo: Andrea Zucker

Dance St. Louis presents the Ballet Memphis production of The Wizard of Oz Friday at 8 PM and Saturday at 2 and 8 PM, January 24 and 25. Based on the popular book and movie, the ballet features choreography by one of Ballet Memphis’ own members, Scotland native and choreographic associate Steven McMahon, as well as music by Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughn Williams. Ballet-Dance Magazine describes Wizard of Oz as “an entertaining adaptation of this popular American Tale...a new classic.” Performances take place at the Touhill Peforming Arts Center on the UMSL campus. For more information: dancestlouis.org.

My take:Ballet Memphis, according to their web site, "annually produces more original work than any other company our size and continues to breathe new life into the classical ballets we’ve long enjoyed." Their motto, "reach further," can be seen in their season, which includes programs like World Wonders ("cultural fusion of some of the world's most creative music, art and dance in four dazzling works"), Peter Pan, River Project 2 (three ballets that "reflect the wonder of our famous natural and cultural resource," the Mississippi River) and En Pointe/En Vogue, about the "marriage of all things dance to the world of fashion, design and beauty." It'll be intriguing to see what they do with this bit of iconic Americana.

Held Over:

Photo: Stewart Goldstein

The Black Rep presents Jeff Stetson's The Meeting, based on a supposed meeting between Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., through January 26. Performances take place at the Emerson Performance Center on the campus of Harris-Stowe State University. For more information: theblackrep.org.

My take: In her review for 88.1 KDHX, Tina Farmer calls this an "effective, thought-provoking drama" that offers "a well-directed, well-performed look under the public veneer" of these important historical figures. "The new space at the Emerson Performance Center on the Harris-Stowe State University campus suits the company well," she writes, "and the technical aspects were to their usual high standards."

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Michael Hollinger's Opus through February 2. "With only four days to rehearse for their most important performance ever, a world-class string quartet takes a chance by hiring a gifted but inexperienced young woman. Onstage the Lazara Quartet is pitch perfect but behind the scenes they're coming unstrung as the four artists battle the sweat, tears and pain that go into making extraordinary music seem effortless. This fascinating play is a passionate look at the delicate and complex relationships between artists' lives and their art." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

My take: I'm on the board of West End Players Guild, the group that did the St. Louis premiere of this play last April. I was a big backer of Opus in the WEPG play reading committee and remain a fan of this funny, literate, dramatic, and informed look at the often less than beautiful reality behind the performance of so much beautiful music. It's easy to be transported by (say) a late Beethoven quartet and lose sight of the fact that the performers are doing their jobs as well as creating art. Opus explores what happens when the worlds of commerce and art collide. "Here is a lovely play," writes Andrea Braun in her review for 88.1 KDHX, "well performed by a talented cast and it deserves an audience".

Circus Harmony presents Verismo, described as “the four seasons, circus style,” on Saturday at 2 and 7 PM and Sunday at 2 PM. Performances take place at City Museum, 701 N. 15th Street. Museum admission is free with your ticket purchase. For more information: circusharmony.org.

My take: The kids at Circus Harmony are always a highlight of Circus Flora's annual performances in Grand Center. Expect a fun, family friendly show in the small rign at City Museum. And don't forget to check out the museum's unique interactive attractions while you're at it; the place is truly a one-of-a-kind experience and a tribute the the remarkable imagination of its founder, the late Robert Cassily.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The title page of the "Eroica."
Beethoven crossed out the original dedication to Napoleon
so angrily he tore the paper.

This weekend's St. Louis Symphony concerts continue the "Beethoven Festival" as David Robertson returns to the podium for the first time in the new year to conduct a newly minted viola concerto and two works directly related to Beethoven's famous 1802 "Heiligenstadt Testament." One—the "Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 55," known as the "Eroica"—is by Beethoven and the other by the composer of the viola concerto, Brett Dean. Neat bit of theme programming, that.

But first, a bit of background on the "Heiligenstadt Testament." It is, as most classical fans will recall, a letter Beethoven wrote to his brothers Carl and Johann at the town of Heiligenstadt (now part of Vienna) in which he told of his despair over his increasing deafness and his struggles with thoughts of suicide. The letter was never delivered (it was found among his papers after his death in 1827) and seems, in retrospect, to have acted as a kind of catharsis for the composer. Before the "Testament" he was a composer/pianist. Afterwards, he would be exclusively a composer.

It also marked the beginning of the emergence of his unique compositional voice. His first two symphonies were clearly in the mold of Haydn and Mozart. But with the "Eroica" Beethoven created, as Paul Schiavo writes in his program notes, "a new musical genre, the Romantic symphony."

And what a symphony! Those first two big chords are almost like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge established notions of what a symphony should be. "A sense of energy and restless invention pervade [sic] the long opening movement," writes Mr. Schaivo. "Beethoven seems so full of creative fire that the usual first-movement design can scarcely contain his thoughts, and we find him continually overstepping its nominal boundaries. As a result, this portion of the symphony has about it the feeling of an epic drama."

The drama continues with the heroic funeral march of the second movement, the restless energy of the third movement scherzo, and the towering finale—a set of elaborate variations followed by a powerful coda. It clocks in at around fifty minutes, which no doubt seemed absurdly excessive to audiences accustomed to symphonies half that length. "One early critic," writes the late Welsh musicologist David Wyn Morris, "described it as ‘a very long-drawn-out daring and wild fantasia' which, at least, reveals a response to its emotive power."

The finale is also a classic example of musical recycling. The theme that serves as the basis for the variations was originally part of a set of twelve "Contredanses" Beethoven wrote between 1791 and 1802. It seems to have been a favorite of his, popping up again in (among other places) his score for the 1802 ballet "The Creatures of Prometheus." Composer and writer Derek Strahan has suggested that Beethoven saw it as a "hero" theme. It certainly becomes heroic in the course of the final movement of the "Eroica."

Brett Dean

The second work inspired by the "Heiligenstadt Testament" was written two centuries after the first one. It's "Testament (Music for 12 Violas)" by violist/composer Brett Dean, first performed in Berlin in 2003 and getting its local premiere this weekend by symphony violists along with guest violists Caleb Burhans of the contemporary music group Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble member Wendy Richman, and Margaret Dyer and Emily Deans of the chamber ensemble A Far Cry.

Quoted in the symphony program, Mr. Dean notes that Beethoven's despair over his deafness could have paralyzed him artistically but "the realization that his [Beethoven's] complete deafness was imminent, ironically also marked the beginning of one of the most creative phases in his compositional life, leading quickly to the Eroica Symphony, the ‘Razumovsky' Quartets and other thoroughly revolutionary scores. His time in Heiligenstadt, then, was a leave-taking, an acceptance and a fresh start." Quotes from the first "Razumovsky" quartet show up in this piece, in fact, which moves from agitation, through sorrow, to what the composer describes as "implied anguish." The final bars are "suspended somewhere between languor and resolve."

"Testament" opens the concerts this weekend, followed by Mr. Dean's 2005 "Viola Concerto" with the composer as soloist. It's laid out in three movements titled, in order, "Fragment," "Pursuit," and "Veiled and Mysterious." Reviewing the world premiere of the concerto by the BBC Symphony in 2005, Andrew Clements of The Guardian described it as "a substantial affair, elegantly proportioned and full of colourful musical imagery." Writing for The Times, John Allison declared that the composer "has written something as personal as one would expect. The haunting and arresting sounds are all his own, and bright colours suggest a strong connection to his country's landscape. Indeed, the peaceful close, in which the previously hectic solo viola emerges purified, evokes a lullaby in which the earth seems to be singing itself to sleep." Seems rather appropriate for the season in which, to quote Lewis Carroll, the snow covers the landscape "with a white quilt; and perhaps it says ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'"

The essentials: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony in Brett Dean's "Testament (Music for 12 Violas") from 2002 and his "Viola Concerto" from 2004 along with Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major," op. 55, "Eroica" from 1803. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 PM at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center. Following the Friday performance, the symphony presents “Ask David,” an informal Q and A with David Robertson on the Orchestra level of the Powell Hall. For more information: stlsymphony.org. The Saturday concert will also be broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio at 90.7 FM, HD 1, and on line at stlouispublicradio.org.

The Lemp Mansion Comedy-Mystery Dinner Theater presents its Bullets in the Bathtub through April 27. The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place. For more information: lempmansion.com

Hard Road Theatre Productions presents the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sunday (January 26 only) at 2 PM, January 24 - February 1. Performances will be held at Highland High School in Highland, IL. For more information: www.hardroad.org.

Clayton Community Theatre presents Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, January 24 - February 2. “Constance Ledbelly - a Shakespearean scholar working on a theory that both Romeo and Juliet and Othello were intended to be comedies - finds herself transported into the worlds of the plays, where not only the endings, but the very characters themselves are nothing like she could possibly have imagined.” Performances take place at the Washington University South Campus Theatre. For more information, call 314-721-9228 or visit placeseveryone.org.

Photo: Stewart Goldstein

The Black Rep presents Jeff Stetson's The Meeting, based on a supposed meeting between Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., through January 26. Performances take place at the Emerson Performance Center on the campus of Harris-Stowe State University. For more information: theblackrep.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

Alton Little Theater presents Moonlight and Magnolias Thursdays through Sundays, January 23 - February 2, at 2450 North Henry in Alton, IL. For more information, call 618.462.6562 or visit altonlittletheater.org.

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Michael Hollinger's Opus through February 2. "With only four days to rehearse for their most important performance ever, a world-class string quartet takes a chance by hiring a gifted but inexperienced young woman. Onstage the Lazara Quartet is pitch perfect but behind the scenes they're coming unstrung as the four artists battle the sweat, tears and pain that go into making extraordinary music seem effortless. This fascinating play is a passionate look at the delicate and complex relationships between artists' lives and their art." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents The Other Place January 22 - February 9. “Brilliant research scientist Juliana Smithton is on the cutting edge in her field, but her life is beginning to come unhinged. While promoting her groundbreaking drug for the treatment of neurological disorders, she experiences a disturbing medical episode of her own and begins to lose her own tenuous grasp on reality. The past blurs with the present and fragmented memories collide in this riveting drama where nothing is as it seems.” Performances take place in the studio theatre at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its seventh season, themed Sins of the Father, with Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan through February 2. Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information, call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

The COCA Theatre Company presents Swallows and Amazons Saturday at 2 and 5 PM and Sunday at 1 PM, January 25 and 26. “ COCA Theatre Company (CTC) presents Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, with songs by Neil Hannon. A musical adventure for the whole family, Swallows and Amazons recalls an idyllic era of endless summer evenings, as a group of imaginative children sets sail on an exotic adventure to encounter savages, capture dastardly pirates and defeat mortal enemies - all before their summer vacation ends.” COCA is at 524 Trinity in University City. For more information, call (314) 725-6555 or visit www.cocastl.org.

New Line Theatre Offline presents What The Hell Are We Doing Here? An Adult Cabaret on Saturday, January 25, at 8 PM. “New Line Theatre Off Line presents a quirky, decidedly adult evening of cabaret, featuring the New Generation of New Liners, Marcy Wiegert (Hair, Cry-Baby, Bukowsical, Night of the Living Dead) and Ryan Foizey (Cry-Baby, High Fidelity, Next to Normal, Bukowsical), with music direction by Justin Smolik and direction by Mike Dowdy.” Performances take place at the Kranzberg Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, call 314-534-1111.

Pat Hazell

Edison Theatre Ovations! Series presents The Wonder Bread Years on Friday and Saturday, January 24 and 25, at 8 PM. “A salute to the Baby Boomer generation, The Wonder Bread Years invites you on a field-trip back to your childhood. No permission slips required! Starring Seinfeld writer Pat Hazell, The Wonder Bread Years is a fast paced, hilarity that walks the line between stand up and theater.” The performances take place at Edison Theater on the Washington University campus. For more information, edison.wustl.edu or call 314-935-6543.

Circus Harmony presents Verismo, described as “the four seasons, circus style,” on Saturdays at 2 and 7 PM and Sundays at 2 PM through January 26. Performances take place at City Museum, 701 N. 15th Street. Museum admission is free with your ticket purchase. For more information: circusharmony.org.

Photo: Andrea Zucker

Dance St. Louis presents the Ballet Memphis production of The Wizard of Oz Friday at 8 PM and Saturday at 2 and 8 PM, January 24 and 25. Based on the popular book and movie, the ballet features choreography by one of Ballet Memphis’ own members, Scotland native and choreographic associate Steven McMahon, as well as music by Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughn Williams. Ballet-Dance Magazine describes Wizard of Oz as “an entertaining adaptation of this popular American Tale…a new classic.” Performances take place at the Touhill Peforming Arts Center on the UMSL campus. For more information: dancestlouis.org.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Bach Society of St. Louis presents a Young Artist Recital featuring 2013-2014 Young Artists and pianist Sandra Geary on Sunday, January 26, at 4 PM at Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place. "The 2013-2014 Young Artists are joined by pianist Sandra Geary for an afternoon of Bach solo arias and duets in addition to personal favorites from operatic and recital repertoire. Enjoy hearing soprano Mary Beth Freitag, mezzo soprano Laura Beth Codispoti, tenor Jake Tackett, and bass Ravi Raghuram on their path to careers as soloists." For more information: www.bachsociety.org.

Eliot Unitarian Chapel presents a Friends of Music Concert on Sunday, January 26, at 3 PM. The concert features music by Rachmaninoff, Schumann, and Brahms. Eliot Unitarian Chapel is at 100 South Argonne in Kirkwood. For more information: fomcstl.org.

Rich O'Donnell

HEARding Cats Collective presents Hear What You Don't See, featuring HCC's artistic directors Rich O'Donnell and Doc Mabuse, on Friday, January 24, at 7:30 PM. "Long time St. Louis percussion and improvising musician Rich O'Donnell will join master syntheist Doc Mabuse for a continuation of their explorations into "theaters of senses." O'Donnell will play his self-invented "SeeSaw percussion," while Mabuse joins him on analog synthesizer and guitar." The performance takes place at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar. For more information: www.heardingcatscollective.org.

The St. Louis Classical Guitar Society presents Festival of Four in concert on Saturday, January 25, at 8 PM. "This group is beloved both here and around the world for their joyful playing of folk and traditional music of many countries, performed on a variety of flutes and fretted instruments. Last here in 2009, the Festival of Four returns to St. Louis for a fifth time." The performance takes place at the Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Road. For more information: www.guitarstlouis.net.

Brett Dean

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents the third in a series of "Beethoven Festival" concerts, as David Robertson conducts the orchestra and viola soloist Brett Dean in Beethoven’s "Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica)" along with Dean’s "Viola Concerto" and "Testament." Performances take place on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, January 24 and 25, at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. "Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 pioneered a bold new direction as he expanded the symphonic form into a dramatic masterpiece unfolding with energy and vigor. Astounding audiences since its debut, this work continues to awe listeners with its rhythmic power. Australian violist Brett Dean makes his STL Symphony debut performing his Viola Concerto, a work full of compelling storytelling." Following the Friday performance, the symphony presents "Ask David," an informal Q&A with David Robertson on the Orchestra level of the Powell Hall. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents a Pulitzer Series Concert on Wednesday, January 22, at 7:30 PM. David Robertson will conduct members of the St. Louis Symphony in the US premiere of John Cage’s "Three Pieces for Five Orchestras" from 1981. The performance takes place at the Pultzer Center for the Arts, 3716 Washington. For more information: stlsymphony.org

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents a town hall meeting to announce its 2014/2015 season on Thursday, January 23, at 6 PM on the state at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. "Join us for a town hall style meeting on the stage of Powell Hall and be the first to learn about STL Symphony concerts planned for the 2014/2015 season. Music Director David Robertson and STL Symphony President & CEO Fred Bronstein will unveil an exciting season and take questions from the audience. Attendees will be treated to a very special five minute performance by STL Symphony first violinist Angie Smart and Circus Flora’s Clowns on Call Conductor Claire Wedemeyer." For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents the Illumine Ensemble on Wednesday, January 22 at 7:30 PM. "Good food and good music-- two of your favorite things collide! The Illumine Ensemble celebrates St Louis's 250th birthday by shedding a little light on St Louis's culinary history. Enjoy a tasting menu of contemporary and historical foods native to St. Louis while you learn the story behind each of them. Along the way, the Illumine Ensemble pairs each item served with a musical work for a wide-ranging performance including the works of Joplin, Gershwin, Rossini, Mozart, and the one and only Chuck Berry. Did we mention gooey butter cake?" The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents Debby Lennon (soprano), Ken Kulosa (cello), and Alla Voskoboynikova (piano) in an evening of Russian music on Thuersday, January 22 at 7:30 PM. The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents The Wires on Saturday, January 25 at 8 PM. "The Wires are an alternative exploration in string sound. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, The Wires compose and perform original music for violin and cello. Inspired by a myriad of genres and eclectic sounds, The Wires are not your typical strings group. The project encompasses a blend of wide-ranging styles, from tango to gypsy, jazz to rock and infused with the precision of classical form. Created, composed and performed by Laurel Morgan (violin) and Sascha Groschang (cello)." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

This weekend the second of the symphony’s four "Beethoven Festival" concerts brings us music of Beethoven, a younger contemporary of Beethoven, and a 20th century composer who acknowledged Beethoven as a major influence—all done up by guest conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada in that dramatic, late Romantic Austro-German style I associate with the recordings of Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer that were so much a part of my youth.

The concerts open with the overture to the 1823 opera "Euryanthe" by that younger contemporary of Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber. Unlike Weber's "Der Freischütz," "Euryanthe" has never found a place in the active repertoire, probably because (as Paul Schiavo writes in his program notes) the libretto by German journalist, poet, and playwright Helmina von Chézy (once described by Mahler as a "poetess with a full heart and an empty head") "was an incompetent botch." Still, the overture is a real crowd pleaser, with engaging themes, plenty of dramatic contrast, and a rousing finale.

Here, as in the rest of the program, Mr. Orozco-Estrada made the most of those contrasts—part of that aforementioned echt Romantic approach. The "ghost" theme was (you should pardon the expression) haunting and the fugato run-up to the finale was nicely articulated. Mr. Orozco-Estrada was an exuberant and very physically demonstrative figure on the podium, with big but crisp gestures suggesting a good balance of emotional involvement and intellectual control.

This week's Beethoven is the "Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major," op. 73 (a.k.a. the "Emperor"), a work which bristles with nobility and grace despite being written under the cloud of war and occupation. When Beethoven was writing the concerto in Vienna in 1809, the city was under heavy siege by Napoleon. "[L]ife around me", he wrote, "is wild and disturbing, nothing but drums, cannons, soldiers, misery of every sort." You can even hear a bit of that bombardment, I think, in the heavy piano chords that show up early in the development section of the first movement just as you can hear a kind of impassioned yearning for peace in the wistful second. It's a work of inescapable emotional power.

Louis Lortie

Soloist Louis Lortie channeled all that power beautifully. This was a very visceral performance; Mr. Lortie truly threw himself into the music, with every emotion etched on his face and visible in his body language. Like Mr. Orozco-Estrada, Mr. Lortie gave us a nearly perfect combination of head and heart. Between them, we got a powerfully noble first movement, a transcendent second and, after that wonderfully suspenseful transition, a completely engaging finale.

This sort of big, colorful, high-wattage reading might not work for some of the earlier Beethoven concerti, but for the Fifth I think it's very valid. The piano part, in particular, seems to cry out for the fuller tone and wider range of the modern, metal frame concert grand—a type of piano that wouldn't be perfected until shortly before the composer's death. Mr. Lortie's muscular approach couldn't have been a better fit.

The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was a great admirer of Beethoven, so it seems only right that this weekend's concerts should conclude with what may be Bartók's most famous work, the 1943 "Concerto for Orchestra." Written, like the "Emperor" concerto, at a time of great personal travail, the "Concerto" is nevertheless a dramatic, appealing, and sometimes even humorous work. Indeed, as Paul Schiavo points out in his program notes, Bartók, although impoverished and suffering from leukemia, declared that the commission to compose this work was "the wonder drug I needed to bring about my own cure."

And it really is a wonder. The "Concerto" provides an opportunity for the members of the symphony to show off, either individually or in small groups—and on Friday morning they did it beautifully. If I were to list everyone who managed to "shine with a virtue resplendent" this morning, I'd just be listing all the principal and assistant principal players in each section, which might make for tedious reading. So I'll merely note that, once again, the St. Louis Symphony lived up to its reputation as an ensemble of virtuosi. Mr. Orozco-Estrada gave all the featured musicians a chance to stand and receive their applause at the end, which they fully earned.

For his part, Mr. Orozco-Estrada gave Bartók the widescreen, Technicolor treatment the "Concerto" deserves. The little dance of the second movement "Giuoco delle coppie" ("The Game of Pairs," featuring a series a duets) was appropriately jaunty; the interjection, in the third movement "Intermezzo interotto" ("Interrupted Intermezzo"), of a theme from the Shostakovich Seventh Symphony (which Bartók heard in a live broadcast while composing the "Concerto") was thoroughly cheeky; and the finale was charged with wild energy. Lively and completely captivating stuff it was, and a welcome antidote to a chilly and blustery winter morning.

Next at Powel Hall: David Robertson continues the "Beethoven Festival" with the "Symphony No. 3" (the "Eroica") along "Testament" and a "Viola Concerto" by contemporary composer/violist Brett Dean. Mr. Dean will be the soloist for his concerto. The concerts are Friday and Saturday, January 24 and 25, at 8 PM. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Enter, Stage Left

Aside from the distinction of being St. Louis’s least-known veteran broadcaster (over three decades and counting), Chuck has been active in theater in St. Louis, Houston, and Terre Haute since the late 1960s. He's been mostly an actor and sound designer, with the occasional foray into directing and (recently) cabaret performance. Chuck has also been writing theater and classical music criticism for nearly as long, and is currently the senior performing arts critic at KDHX-FM, and the producer of the KDHX Arts Calendar. Chuck is a member of the St. Louis Theater Circle and the Music Critics Association of North America, as well as the local correspondent for Cabaret Scenes magazine and a performing arts blogger for OnSTL.com